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An Austrian daredevil plummeted into the record books today (Oct.
14), breaking the mark for highest-ever skydive after leaping
from a balloon more than 24 miles above Earth's surface. Add one
more feat: Going supersonic.

Felix Baumgartner stepped into the void nearly 128,000 feet
(39,000 meters) above southeastern New Mexico Sunday at just
after 12 p.m. MT (2 p.m. ET, 1800 GMT), then landed safely
on the desert floor about 20 minutes later.
His harrowing plunge shattered the skydiving altitude record,
which had stood for more than 50 years, and it notched a few
other firsts as well.

During his freefall, for example, Baumgartner became the first
skydiver ever to break
the sound barrier, which is about 690 mph (1,110 kph) at such
lofty heights. And this happened on a special day — today is the
65th anniversary of the first supersonic airplane flight, which
was piloted by American Chuck Yeager in 1947 aboard the Bell X-1
rocket plane.

Preliminary results of the jump showed Baumgartner spent about 4
minutes and 20 seconds in freefall (a record without a drogue
parachute). His maximum speed was 833 mph (1,342.8 kph), said
Brian Utley, an air sports official watching over event.

The jump's top speed was thus Mach 1.24 — considerably faster
than the speed of sound. Applause and cheers erupted in a
post-jump press conference as Utley relayed the good news.

Baumgartner said he didn't feel anything different while breaking
the sound barrier.

"When you're in that pressure suit, you don't feel anything. It's
like being in a cast," he said.

About the only glitch during the jump was a problem with the
faceplate heater in Baumgartner's helmet, which the skydiver and
his Mission Control team worked on during the hours-long
ascent. They ultimately decided to proceed with the jump despite
the heater glitch, and later Baumgartner reported the heater was
working.

While in freefall, Baumgartner went into a harrowing spin
briefly, but was able to recover and go into a controlled
descent. He said his visor was fogging up during the dramatic
descent. After the daredevil fell toward Earth for more than four
minutes, his parachute deployed and applause erupted from his
Mission Control.

Baumgartner landed about 37 miles away from his launch point in
New Mexico, project officials said. His capsule touchdown a
further 55 miles east of the landing site, they added.

Roof of the sky

Baumgartner's mission — called
Red Bull Stratos, and sponsored by the Red Bull energy drink
company — also set the record for highest-ever manned balloon
flight, officials said. Project officials touted the skydive as a
"space jump," calling it a "Mission to the Edge of Space."

The officially recognized space border is actually higher,
however. Most experts generally regard space to begin at an
altitude of 62 miles (100 kilometers), or about 327,000 feet.

One of the many folks congratulating Baumgartner today is
doubtless Joe Kittinger, who set the previous altitude mark of
102,800 feet (31,333 m) in 1960 while a captain in the U.S. Air
Force. Kittinger serves as an adviser to the Red Bull Stratos
mission and communicated with Baumgartner during his ascent from
mission control on the ground. [ Extreme
Skydive From 120,000 Feet Animated ]

"I couldn't have done it any better myself," Kittinger radioed
Baumgartner as he descended under parachute.

The 43-year-old Baumgartner is a veteran thrill-seeker, having
leapt from some of the world's tallest buildings and soared
across the English Channel in freefall with the aid of a carbon
wing. But he said today's historic jump should do more than just
etch his name in the record books.

"Red Bull Stratos is an opportunity to gather information that
could contribute to the development of life-saving measures for
astronauts and pilots — and maybe for the
space tourists of tomorrow," Baumgartner said in a statement
before his leap. "Proving that a human can break the speed of
sound in the stratosphere and return to Earth would be a step
toward creating near-space bailout procedures that currently
don’t exist."

The balloon was originally supposed to take off Monday (Oct. 8),
but that launch, and another attempt Tuesday (Oct. 9), were
called off because of gusting winds. Even moderate breezes can
damage the enormous balloon, which is made of material 10 times
thinner than a plastic sandwich bag, Red Bull Stratos officials
have said.

Some of the daredevil's close friends and family — including his
parents, Felix and Eva — made the trip from Austria to witness
his record-breaking leap, mission officials said.

"I know he is perfectly prepared," Eva Baumgartner said in a
statement before her son's jump, which he had spent five years
readying for. "I am happy that he can do this; he worked hard for
it. It is his childhood dream coming true."

Baumgartner worked up to today's leap in a stepwise fashion,
jumping from 71,581 feet (21,818 m) this past March and then from
97,146 feet (29,610 m) on July 25.

Jonathan Clark, a former NASA flight surgeon who served as the
medical officer for Baumgartner's Red Bull Stratos mission, said
nothing about the skydive was simple. From the faceplate heater
to Baumgartner's early spin during freefall, the challenges were
always great.

"This was not an easy task," Clark said. "The world needs a hero,
and today they got one."